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FF:QLD At The Movies - Reviews & Critical Musings

Discussion in 'Oceania Discussion Boards' started by casual-jedi, Aug 3, 2006.

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  1. casual-jedi

    casual-jedi Jedi Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 6, 2002
    Star Trek.
    [image=http://www.cinematicwallpaper.com/movie-pictures/wallpapers/Star_Trek_wallpaper/Star_Trek_XI_003.jpg]
    If I had to be utterly succint in my appraisal of this film, I'd describe it as the Maestro behind Alias & Lost - JJ Abrams, essentially hitting the reset button on the franchise. A franchise that has in his own words "become diluted" through a "loss of focus". So in this film, Abrams has attempted to return to the core of the success to Gene Roddenberry's original vision... The Kirk & Spock bro-mance. And I gotta say, it was a valiant effort on behalf of JJ McRestart. It just goes to show that you can fix most anything, with Time-Travel as a plot device. Now I'm not saying I'm gonna dust off the old com-badge & ensign button right this minute, but the phaser is most definately set to STUN.

    There are far worse ways to spend a couple of hours.
    8/10
     
  2. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    Regarding Watchmen -
    And another 2 to the list of people who didn't read but understood the movie and even liked it. Two of the girls from work saw it and to quote one from and email "loved it to bits". From girls who are normally the romantic comdey types that is high praise.

    Star Trek -
    This one is difficult because it requires me to describe precisely what I thought I was going to get, to people who I know didn't like some of the previous movie incarnations. What I was expecting was ST: Insurrection. Now I LIKED this movie - though I know that some of you do not. I liked it because it was a bit of fun with some stupid ST morals thrown in on the side that you could take and leave at whim. Oh and did I mention the movie looked oh so good for it's time? Call it stupid fun if you want, minus Patrick Stewart, who always delivers a good performance. I was expecting to not be particularly enamoured with the kid playing Kirk, seemed like a bit of a jock in the trailers, and I honestly wasn't expecting the main storyline to captivate me in anyway. I wasn't expecting ST: Firt Contact, which I'm sure many will agree is one of the best ST movies to date, yes Wrath of Kahn is pretty damn good too.

    Needless to say what I got was soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much more than I expected. Right from the opening sequence the movie grabbed me. The drama on the Kelvin was just right, not too over done, not too understated, just that the right level to elicit a human response, kudos to the actors of that 5 minute piece for such a good job. And after that I didn't have that many complaints. I felt it hit enough ST memes in the right way to make them humourous, the actors did a good job all round, Kirk, I kinda actually liked as a character (wow). My major issues were Chekov - when all the other actors seemed to be channelling their characters he was not (in part I think because of the huge physical difference, I watched B5 too much Koeng was Bester and he was Chekov - so much of my dislike here is probably personal). Ohura (sp?) - the perfect, perfect opportunity for Hollywood to cast a CURVY woman. They could have passed over all the good (thin) black actors and just said, she needs curves and it would have been accepted - but they didn't GRRR. The thing with Spock was a bit weird (not bad, just weird, and in many ways not even out of place) but I won't go into that.

    All in all I'd give it an 8 or 9 out of 10. Delivered a good, interesting story even if a few characters seemed to be cast oddly.
     
  3. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    Off to see HP tonight or maybe some other movie type thing. WOndering what people thought of the new HP incarnation....
     
  4. RoGuE_StreaK

    RoGuE_StreaK Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 24, 2005
    I... dunno what I feel about HP yet. I've heard a few HP fans say that it's their favourite so far, that it's the "ESB" of the HP series.
    Probably because it's the first HP movie I've seen AFTER reading the book, so I've joined the ranks of those who are like "that didn't happen in the book", or "why did they leave that out?". Slughorn's casting didn't match my mental picture, which probably put me out a bit. But yeah, pretty good.
     
  5. morgan-aleghieri

    morgan-aleghieri Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Mar 18, 2006
    I enjoyed HP - it didn't make me facepalm too hard at any given point, and the romance stuff didn't make me want to shoot things, so that's awesome as well. There's lots of stuff that would have been awesome to have in there, but that film was already about 3hrs long. It didn't need to be crazy-long. The film's major annoyance is that there's a bunch of stuff that is referenced that you really need to have read the book to get what the dickens they're talking about.

    Overall, 4 stars - even if just for Luna's awesome Lion-hat. [face_peace] Lion-hat is awesome...
     
  6. Lozza

    Lozza Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Feb 8, 2005
    I like 6 very much. The relationship stuff did have me facepalming but from the point of view of knowing and understanding that the movie's portrayal of teen relationships is SPOT ON - all those little OMG I know I did that, or I know someone who did/acted like that oh how silly it is moments.

    All the things left out I could live with, all the things added I could live with. Slughorn wasn't exactly how I imagined him but I think he was brilliant all the same.

    Only thing that bothered me is that the Half Blood Prince stopped being mentioned halfway through the movie. The way it just pops up at the end didn't feel right. It wasn't that the script was bad, just that the timing of all the stuff surrounding the book didn't quite sit right.
     
  7. RoGuE_StreaK

    RoGuE_StreaK Jedi Youngling star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 24, 2005
    Yeah I forgot about that. For a movie called "The Half Blood Prince", they did a good job of neglecting it... I also envisaged Snape being more enraged/scathing in said scene, but hey, Rickman's still more Snape than anyone else could ever be!
     
  8. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    HP and the Half Blood Prince:

    Agree with Rogue and Lozza about the general feel being good, slughorn being not quite right but great and about the lack of Half Blood Princing.

    I'm of the "my favourite Potter movie" group I think, and I look forward to seeing it again.

    Ron and Hermione's relationship and Ginny and Harry's were spot on, and I didn't cringe at poor writing or acting once.

    Great 9/10

    Coraline:
    I was totally ready for the style of the animation so that wasn't as exciting as it might've been for a noob like my munchkin. It was a good film, in the style of Corpse Bride and not in the same ballpark weird as Nightmare before Christmas..although it was certainly odd.

    The characters were engaging and real..I think I'm Coraline's mother or father half the time..and the scary bits weren't so much that the kid was terrified. In hindsight maybe he was a little young, especially for a particularly strange play where over 80's women were semi clad and busty...odd!

    I enjoyed it, but it's not as up there in rank as I'd have hoped.

    7.5/10

     
  9. General Cargin

    General Cargin Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    May 15, 1999
    Balibo. Go see it. As far as I'm aware, the only cinema in Brisbane showing it is Dendy Dockside.

    I went to see it yesterday, and after the credits rolled, I couldn't sum up words that do this film justice. I still can't. All I feel right now is sadness and a touch of rage at the cowardice of both Indonesia for invading East Timor, and our own government for standing by and letting them do it.

    Balibo would rate for me as Australian film of the year.
     
  10. Kahlan72

    Kahlan72 Jedi Padawan star 4

    Registered:
    Dec 27, 2000
    Balibo does sound like an intense and amazing film. It's on the list for when I feel less like watching fluff.



    We saw a preview of Avatar at Chermside yesterday, in 3D. And yes, up to 4 hours before I thought I was seeing parts of pre-production of The Last airbender type Avatar. Not so. Also they didn't take our phones of us despite "security" being advertised..should've filmed it!

    I guess I've been spared the lead up to James Cameron's Avatar, that some seem sick of already, so walked in with little knowledge or idea what I was going to see. It was only 15 minutes or so of footage, but it was great.

    There's certain to be more war and violence in it than we saw so I can't comment on how graphic or fantastic that'll be, depending on how you see such things, but the 3D, fantasy characters, backgrounds, and story look pretty awesome.

    It's 3D, and stll has some natural camera attempts with movement and running and flying, so if throwing up from travel sickness is common, like me, sit farther back in the cinema.

    I've commented that it's Fergully: the Last Rainforest meets Starship Troopers, and I don't mean that unfairly. It has the feel of the fantasy of the first and the story of man becomes one of the oppressed and fights back to ease the oppression, and the brief scenes of monsters and fighting had the military feel of Troopers to me.

    Overall I was left really impressed with how it looks visually, excited that it was really a fantasy film disguised as sci-fi, and wanting to see more. Guess that was the whole idea for them giving a few people 15 minutes of cool to tell others about. Hence my job is done.

    I probably will try to ignore much more of the hype so as to walk into the actual film with only this much knowledge, but I try to prevent spoilers no matter waht I'm seeing..so 15 minutes of footage was weird for me to see.

    Watch the trailer, see if it's your thing. It's mine.
     
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